Refrigerating system



Sept. 15, 1925.

I J. BLAZEK nammmunne SYSTEI Filed Sent. 1924 2 Shuts-511001. 1

Sept. 15, 1925.

J. BLAZEK REFRIGERATING SYS'I'BI Filed Sept. 1924 2 Shuts-Shut 2 1Systems,

Patented Sept. 15. 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT ioFF oE.

, .rosnrn BLAZER, or ci'iicaeo, rumors.

'REFRIGEBATING srs'rnu.

I Application filed September 15, 1924. Serial No. 737,042.

"'0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Josnrn BLAznK, a

.itizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illlnois, have invented certain new and useful of whichthe following isa specification.

This invention, in the form shown, is directed to refri erated displaycounters, a1 thou h the re rigerating system employed may e used under avariety of conditions, so that it will be understood that the spe cificdetails of construction herein set forth are not, in the absence ofexpress limitation, to be understood as imposing limitations on the useof the invention. The refrigerating system employed is one whichutilizes jets of. cold brine or other refrigerating medium for thepurpose of 'cooling the air within the compartment wherein perishablearti cles are stored, and for the purpose of es- 'tablishing aircurrents which will tend to withdraw the warmer air from the upperportions of the chamber or compartment, and, after cooling the same,recirculate the air back to the starting point. This system of coolingis peculiarly adapted for use in the construction of refrigerateddisplay cpunters, in that it permits .the use of the entire upperportion of the counter for display purposes, and obviates the necessityfor providing ice chambers, or the like, which will interfere with thedisplay of goods and are otherwise objectionable, sinc they frequentlyinterfere with easy access to the goods on display.

In the present invention, the brine tank and pump may be located in thelower portion of the counter within space which is not desirable for thedisplay of goods, so that the upper portion of the counter may, ifdesired, be walled in with glass and per- ,mit a ready inspection of thegoods from ing the features of the present invention and taken on line11 of Fig. 2, being broken Improvements in" Refrigerating.

awayin the center to cupied by the figure;

Flg. 2 is a cross sectional elevation of the same; and V Figs. 3, 4 and5 are dia ams showing va rlations in the method of directing the sprayinto the chamber to be cooled. Y

As applied to a display counter, the invention comprises a brinetankwhich occupies the lower portion of the counter structure. Thecounter, as shown, comreduce the space prises a front wall 11, a rearwall 12, a bottom or base 13, and end walls 14, all of the walls shownbeing of the insulated character commonly employed in the constructionof refrigerators, ic boxes, and the like.

Above the-brine tank chamber is a partition wall which, as shown, slopesslightly from front to rear and is covered on the top by metallic lining16 and having near. its rear edge one or more drain spouts 17 adapted topermit the cooling liquid to drain back into the underlying brine tank.Above the partition wall 15 is located a display shelf 18 which may beformed of opalite glass or other convenient and sanitary material uponwhich to place the goods to be displayed.

The upper part of the display counter, as shown, comprises a glass frontwall 19, a top plate 20. and sliding doors 21 at the rear of the displayportion of the counter which afford access to the interior thereof. Itwill be understood that the details of construction of the displaycoun'er can be modified as desired without departing from the spirit ofthe invention.

Within the lower portion of the counter, as shown, is located a pump 22immediately adjacent to one end of the brine tank and opening thereintothrough a port 23. The pump is preferably driven by a motor 24 andserves to deliver cooling fluid under pressure through a header pipe 25which, as shown in Fig. 1, leads up to a point above the partition wall15 and extends from end to end of the display chamber near the frontranged as to provide open slots or spaces 27 and 28 along the front andrear edges thereof which provide for the circulation of air from thestorag: space above the shelf tothe cooling space neath, and the flow ofcurrents will be induced by the action of the spray 'ets, which not onlyserve to coolthe air wit which they come in contact, but also serve tomaintain a current flow in the direction of movement of the emittedspray.

In order to provide for the coupling tother of a series of counters tobe served om the same brine tank, a second header pipe 29 is providedwhich leads from the pump 23 through the brine tank chamber and theopposite end wall 15, ftvhich header pipe is provided with a suitablecouplin 30 to make connection'with the next succee mg display counterunit a return pipe 31 or the like being provided for leading the brineback to the tank 10.

In Figs. 3, 4 and are shown various modifications of the arran ementpreviously described' In Fig. 3 is 510WI1 an arrangement wherein theheader pipe is located at one end of the shelf 18 which is, in thisinstance, arranged to afford spaces at its ends for the circulation ofair currents in the manner indicated by the arrows. Fig. 4 shows asecond modification in which two headers 25, are located near the centerof the display compartment and discharge in opposite directions towardsthe ends thereof beneath the shelf sections 18 which are spaced apart inthe center to permit of the establishment of two oppositely directedair.currents. Fig. 5

shows a modification of the above in which the header ipes 25 arelocated near the ends of the isplay compartment and direct jets ofliquid toward the center thereof beneath the shelf sections 18. Othermodifications of the same general idea might be made without departingfrom the spirit of the invention.

Furthermore, the brine tank might, if desired, be located at a distancefrom the compartment or compartments to be cooled and the brine or othercooling medium discharged through a suitable system of pipes adapted tothe requirements of local conditions. The coolin medium employed may beany suitable liquid mixture, such as is commonly employed forrefrigerating purposes, such, for instance, as ice and water, ice andsalt and water; or in cases where cooling coils are available, the samemay be housed within the tank and utilized to reduce the temperature ofthe refrigerant employed, so that it will be understood that the termbrine tank is intended to cover a tank intended to house the liquidcooling mixture whatsoever-may be the constituents thereof.

In order to prevent the ingress of solid particles which might tend toclog the system, it is preferred to provide a screen 31 over the end ofthe pump intake 23. The spray system of the present invention ispeculiarly adapted to the requirements of a display counter in that itdoes not encumber any portion of the structure devoted to the dis-' playof the goods and rmits ready access to be obtained thereto rom the rear.

This method of refrigeration d s away with the use of refrigerantsplaced behind the counter, as is commonly the case, which method ofcooling makes it necessary for the attendant to reach over therefrigerating chamber of the counter to gain access and to handle theoods on display, and it also does away with t enecessity for placing arefrigerating compartment at each end of the counter or in the centerthereof, which method of refrigeration is extremely wasteful of s aceand frequently reduces the s ace availab e for display purposes by atleast 20%.

By the use of the spray system, acting under the pressure of the pump,the natural tendency of the cool air to fall is overcome, and currentsof cool air are caused to rise to the top of the counter, so' that it isthereby possible to reverse the usual arrangement observed in theconstruction of refrigerators, and to locate the cooling medium below,rather than above, the storage or display compartment.

The arrangement is one which enables the counters to be arranged in unitorder, since one of the-counters may be equipped to serve as a mastercounter from which the brine is distributed to the other counterscomposing the series, although obviously each counter sectionmay be inthe form of a selfcontained unit fully equipped with a brine tank andmotor to operate independently of other units. I

I claim:

1. In a refrigerated display counter, the

combination of a structure provided with a substantially horizontallydisposed partition wall dividing the structure into an upper displaycompartment and a lower brine compartment, a brine cooling tank in thelower "compartment and in communication through a drainage opening inthe partition with the upper compartment, a shelf within the displaycompartment elevated slightly above the partition, to afford arelatively broad and low spraying space, the shelf having along itsopposite edges passageways for the upfiow and return downflow of airrespectively to and from the display portion of the display compartment,a spray pipe located beneath the shelf and at a point adjacent to thereturn downflow air passage and provided on the the side fronting thespraying space with discharge openings directed toward said space andadapted to direct the flow of jets of coolingliquid in a substantiallyhorizontal plane beneath the o means for driving said pump,substantially as described.

2. In a refrigerated display counter, the combination of a structureprovided with a substantially horizontally disposed part1- tion walldividing the structure into an upper display compartment and a lowerbrine compartment, a brine cooling tank in the lower com artment and incommunication through a f rainage opening in the partition with theupper compartment to receive drainage therefrom, a shelf within thedisplay compartment elevated slightly above the artition to afford arelatively broad and ow spraying space, the shelf having along itsopposite edges passageways for the upflow and downflow 0 air resectively to and from the display portion 0 the dis play compartment, aspray pipe located beneath the shelf and at a point adjacent to thereturn downflow air passage and provided on the side fronting thespraying space with discharge openings directed toward said s ace andada ted to direct the flow of jets o cooling liquid in a substantiallyhorizontal plane beneath the shelf and in substantial parallelismtherewith to create air currents through the relatively narrow 'sprayingspace beneath the shelf and upwardly through the air passage towardwhich the jets are directed and-to cause said air currents to returndownwardly through the air passage adjacent to the spray pipe, a pumpcommunicating with the brine tank and the spray pipe, means for drivingsaid pump, and means in communication with the pump and leading to apoint outside of the structure for serving a second display counter unitfrom the same pump, substantially as described.

3. In a refrigerated counter, a compartment provided near its base witha substantially horizontal shelf dividing the compartment into arelatively high and large overlying space for the housing of perishablearticles and a relatively low broad underlying spraying space, the shelfhaving along itsopposite edges passageways for the upflow and returndownflow of air respectively to and from the overlying housing space, aspray pipe located beneath the shelf and provided on the side frontingthe spraying space with discharge openings directed toward said spaceand adapted to di-i rect the flowof jets of cooling liquid in asubstantially horizontal plane beneath the shelf and in substantialparallelism therewith to induce air currents through the relativelynarrow spraying space beneath the shelf and upwardly through the airpassage toward which the jets'are directed and to cause said aircurrents to return through the downflow air passage, the base of thecompartment being provided with a drain passage, a brine cooling tank incommunication with said drain passage, and a ump in communication on itsintake side with the brine tank and on its discharge side with the spraypipe, and means for operating the pump, substantially as described.

4. In a refrigerated counter, a compart' ment provided near its basewith a substantially orizontal shelf dividin the compartment into arelatively high an large overly ing space for the housing of perishablearticles and a relatively low broad underlying spraying s ace, the shelfbeing spaced along opposite e ges from the proximate walls of thecompartment to afford passageways for the upflow and return downflow ofair respectively to and from the overlying housing space, a spray pipelocated beneath the shelf and at a point adjacent to and substantiallyparallel with the edge of the shelf proximate to the return downflowpassage and provided on the side fronting the spraying space withdischarge openings directed toward said space and adapted to direct theflow of jets of cooling liquid in a substantially horizontal planebeneath the shelf and in substantial parallelism therewith to induce aircurrents through the relatively narrow spraying space beneath the shelfand upwardly through the air passage toward which the jets are directedand to cause said air currents to return downwardly throu h the airpassage adjacent the spray pipe, 'ie base of the compartment beingsloped downwardly from the spray pipe and provided near itsrdistant edgewith a drain passage, a'brine cooling tank in communication with saiddrain passage, and a pump in communication on its intake side with thebrine tank and on its discharge side with the spray pipe, and means foroperating the pump, substantially as described.

5. In a refrigerated counter, a structure having means for dividing itinto a relatively high and capacious display compartment for the housingof perishable articles, and a relatively low and restricted underlyingspraying space, said spraying space being in communication at each endwith the overlying display compartment through air upflow and downflowpassages respectively, a spraying pipe adapted to discharge into thespraying space and located in proximity to the downflow air passage, andprovided on the side fronting the spraying space with a dischargeopening toward said space adapted to direct the flow of a jet of coolingliquid beneath the base of the display compartment to induce aircurrents through the relatively restricted spraying space and upwardlythrough the air upflow 5 passage toward which the jet is directed and tocause said air currents to return through the downfiow air passage, thebasecof the spraying space being provided with a drain passage, a brinecooling-tank in communi-' cation with said drain passage, and a pum 10in communication on its intake side wit the brine tank and on itsdischarge sidewith the spray pipe, and means for o rating the pump,substantially as descri d.

, JOSEPH BLAZEK.

